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Archaeological records show that astronomy is one of the first natural sciences developed by early civilisations all over the globe. Ancient astronomers could perform only limited investigations of the sky, using rudimentary aids to the human eye. Even so, humankind had already begun the measurement of the positions of celestial bodies, making astrometry – the science of charting the sky – one of the oldest branches of astronomy.
Curiosity alone did not inspire the earliest astronomers: astronomy and astrometry were practical sciences too. Monitoring the motions of stars and planets in the sky was the best tool to track time, which was fundamental for agriculture, religious rituals and navigation.
The first documented records of systematic astronomical observations date back to the Assyro-Babylonians around 1000 BCE. From this cradle of civilisation in Mesopotamia – in the southern part of present-day Iraq – astronomers had built up knowledge of the celestial bodies and recorded their periodic motions. But they had no idea how far away the stars and the planets were.
